Ricotta cheese Ingredients:
1 gallon whole milk
1 pint heavy cream
1 8 oz. sour cream
Dash of salt
1-2 small lemons
You will need a large silicone basting brush and at least an 8 qt. pot.

Manicotti Filling Ingredients: ( we call it Mana-got)
Your homemade ricotta cheese
Ball of Oaxaca cheese (sorry Nana, but it's so buttery!)
Grated Pecorino Romano cheese
Parsley
2 eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs

Crepe ingredients
6 eggs
1 and 1/2 cup water
1 cup flour
pinch salt

Meatball Ingredients:
2 lb. Ground beef
1 egg
2 cups fresh bread crumbs
Salt
Pepper
1/2 cup fresh parsley
1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano
3 cloves garlic (minced)
Brasciole Ingredients:
4 large milanese style beef cutlets
4 hard boiled eggs
1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano (more to come!)
1 cup fresh parsley
3 cloves garlic
Salt & pepper
Butcher's twine

Sauce ingredients:
3 large cans peeled tomatoes (save an empty can to hold your wooden spoon)
3 8 oz. cans tomato sauce
2 cans tomato paste (save an empty can)
3 cloves garlic
Dash salt
Splash of olive oil
About 2 tablespoons of the strained meatball grease, providing you didn't burn or violate it in any way. Otherwise use a tablespoon of lard and the olive oil.
1 paste can of red wine (this is why you save the can)
1 paste can of water

Fresh Italian sausage- 1 lb. sweet and 1 lb. hot

Salad Ingredients:
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Serving:
2 lb. spaghetti or your favorite pasta served family style in a big bowl. Mix a few ladles of sauce into your al dente' pasta and place all of the meats on a nice big platter, being careful not to destroy the Brasciole! It will be so tender that if you stir the sauce it will disintegrate and you will be left with something that resembles a Sloppy Joe. Not good! Slice the Brasciole carefully with a SHARP knife on the platter and discard the string.
Tell everyone to belly up & serve themselves!

You will also need:
Parsley for garnish
Plenty of grated Pecorino Romano on top!
A nice Italian or French bread
A great olive oil for dipping bread
Great red wines that you love
About 10 people that you love

Cooking and preparation time about 8 hours

Start the cheese first- you need a huge (at least 8 qt) pot filled with a gallon of whole milk to start off.

This and a gallon of milk is all you need to make Ricotta cheese. Add the cream, sour cream and salt to the milk and whisk it up. Save the lemon for later!

Make it nice and smooth! Turn the heat to medium low. It will take a while for it to heat up so be patient.

This tool is a must-have when making this recipe. If the milk is not constantly stirred and gently removed from the bottom and sides of the pot, it will scorch and ruin the cheese. This is the best tool for the job and you will thank me later when you don't have to remove what basically becomes spray-on truck bedliner from your pot.

Be patient and keep stirring so that the pot stays clean. In about 10 minutes you will start to see a froth forming. Keep stirring until it starts to gently boil.

Add a generous amount of lemon juice... stir gently. From this point forward you must not scrape the bottom and sides of the pot! Scorched milk is NOT cheese.

POW cheese! Stay in control of the heat so that it doesn't boil hard enough to break up the curds. I keep one hand on the dial at all times.

Let the curd start to pile up and then gently take it out with a large slotted spoon.

Put a strainer in a large bowl and pile the cheese gently into the strainer.

Do it again- it will make cheese about 3 times and should fill up your strainer to the top. The trick is controlling the boil- slowing down when its making curds and heating back up after you take them out. Soon as it boils again add lemon and slow it down.

An average batch of not-so-average Ricotta cheese.

Wrap the ball in cheesecloth. Make sure there's enough whey in the bowl to soak it in, and refrigerate it until you need it. You can make this the night before if you want.

If you did a good job stirring, you will have just a few "barnacles" to scrub. If you didn't, you will be scraping hard brown epoxy off of the pot and your cheese will taste like a fireplace.

MAKING THE BRASCIOLE

For the Brasciole, tenderize your beef cutlets and season with salt and pepper.

Chop up the garlic and parsley nice and fine.

Sprinkle on the Pecorino Romano.

Cover with the garlic and parsley mixture.

Peel your eggs and try not to eat one. Angie gets mad about that.

Add sliced egg.

Wrap it up like a sideways burrito. Or something.

Roll it up

Use your imagination.

Snug as a bug in a rug.

Slap the meatball ingredients together. Get your hands in there and mix it real good. Roll them up about the size of a golf ball.

Don't roll them so much so they turn into pate'. Leave them a little chunky.

Sharpen up and cube up the pork.

Be sure to season the pork with salt and pepper.

This and a pan full of sauce and meatballs is why you need a really big pot.

Now make the sauce- first destroy the tomatoes with your small but mighty hands.

Stir in the sauce.

Browning all of the meats in olive oil.

Brasciole goes first- get a nice quick brown on it with a medium high heat.

Give the meatballs a nice lard bath to make the crunchy.

Put the meatballs in the sauce after they are crispy- don't forget to leave out a couple for snacking!

Brown the pork.

Gets full quick...

Now brown the sausage.

Now it's time to brown the paste. A few cloves of garlic and some salt in a splash of olive oil, along with a few tablespoons of the meatball grease starts it off.

Add the paste to the oil and garlic.

Brown the paste under medium heat for a few minute, ensuring that nothing burns.

Now add a paste can full of red wine.

Throw in a can of water too.

Stir up this beautifully fragrant concoction.

Add to your sauce and GENTLY stir. We don't want to break up the meats! While she was making the sauce, I have been browning the meats and adding them to the simmering tomato sauce.

Very carefully stir without smashing anything.

Barely fits in an 8 qt. pot. Now simmer it for 3 hours on low.